The present invention relates to a setting and display method of an apparatus for measuring a physical-characteristic value of a living body, and in particular, to a method of setting and displaying a personal body data of a body fat meter for measuring a body fat percentage or a body fat mass based on the bioelectric impedance method.
In recent years, there is a growing awareness of the fitness, and it has led to a variety of devices provided and used for evaluating a various data, such as blood pressure and pulse, concerning to a human body of user. In particular, there seems to be a trend toward an idea to set a higher value on a body fat percentage than a body weight in health care. Accordingly, a body fat meter has been suggested which takes advantage of the fact that the body fat mass of a human body could be evaluated by using a bioelectric impedance, and because of its simplicity in a measurement, a variety of commercial products employing this device has become widely used at home. It has become to be generally recognized that a person with higher body fat percentage has a higher risk to suffer from adult disease, and in these days more health-conscious folks, without regard to the young or the old, have commonly checked the body fat thereof by using those body fat meters. Further, a body fat meter including an integrated body weight scale also has been getting popular to support the health care in both viewpoints of body weight and body fat percentage.
These body fat meter described above applies an current into a body of a test subject through end portions thereof to measure a voltage between these sites thus to measure a bioelectric impedance value. Based on this obtained impedance value and a set of personal body information, such as the height, the weight, the sex and the age of the test subject, the body fat meter evaluates a current body fat percentage or a body fat mass, a weight of the body fat, to be indicated.
As described above, since the body fat meter uses a set of personal body information, such as the height, the weight, the sex and the age of the test subject for evaluation, the data is required to be inputted to the device. On this purpose, the test subject using the body fat meter uses a set switch to set the personal body information including the height, the weight, the sex and the age of the subject in order. Further, in the body fat meter including the integrated body weight scale, since the measured body weight value is directly used to evaluate a body fat percentage, the body weight is not required to be set in advance, but the other data should be required to do so.
Further, a body fat meter used at home is driven by using batteries, and if the body fat meter is left in displaying state for a long time after the switch is pressed, it consumes the current in vain to result in the need for a frequent exchange of batteries. To prevent this problem, the bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus is usually equipped with an automatic power-off function for automatically turning off the power supply in such case that no entry has occurred for a certain period, thus making the battery life longer.
However, there must be a case that a user of a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus is an elderly person who is probably inexperienced in machine operation. In such case, sometimes a trouble has happened that a function of automatic power-off becomes activated to turn off the power supply in the course of setting while the user keeps on setting with referring to the instruction. Due to this, disadvantageously there has been a probability that, for example, the user is prohibited from completing the setting or the user uses the body fat meter with improper setting to measure a body fat percentage, resulting in an improper health management.
Further, the automatic power-off function is also activated during the measuring operation of the bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus so as to automatically turn off the power supply a few seconds after a certain time period of result display. However, this automatic power-off function has been typically set to a certain time period, with regardless to the differences among the users, for example, a difference between a user capable of making a quick recognition of the display contents and an elderly user with weak eyesight or poor thinking faculty, and some users have thought that the display period is rather shorter, because the display has happened to disappear while they are struggling with recalling the formerly measured value.
The present invention is made in the light of these problems described above, and accordingly an object thereof is to provide an improve bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus which allows a user to set his (her) personal body data with easier manner taking sufficient time, and also allows to use the apparatus more easily by modifying a display period of a result in response to the request of the user.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus comprises an input device, a storage device, a measuring device, an arithmetic and control device, and a display device, in which:
said input device inputs a personal body data of a test subject;
said storage device stores said inputted personal body data;
said measuring device measures a physical characteristics of a living body;
said arithmetic and control device evaluates a condition of the living body of the test subject based on said physical characteristics and said inputted personal body data; and
said display device indicates the inputted personal body data and evaluated result and the likes;
wherein in said input device, upon setting the personal body data, a luminescent element corresponding to a section available for an entry operation is lighted up.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus comprises an input device, a storage device, a measuring device, an arithmetic and control device, and a display device, in which:
said input device inputs a personal body data of a test subject;
said storage device stores said inputted personal body data;
said measuring device measures a physical characteristics of a living body;
said arithmetic and control device evaluates a condition of the living body of the test subject based on said physical characteristics and said inputted personal body data; and
said display device indicates the inputted personal body data and evaluated result and the likes;
wherein in said input device, upon setting the personal body data, a luminescent element corresponding to a section available for an entry operation is lighted up; and
said display device, upon setting the personal body data, indicates a data available for an entry operation.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus comprises an input device, a storage device, a measuring device, an arithmetic and control device, and a display device, in which:
said input device inputs a personal body data of a test subject including an age data;
said storage device stores said inputted personal body data;
said measuring device measures a physical characteristics of a living body;
said arithmetic and control device evaluates a condition of the living body of the test subject based on said physical characteristics and said inputted personal body data; and
said display device indicates the inputted personal body data and evaluated result and the likes;
wherein said arithmetic and control device modifies a standby time until an automatic power-off based on the entered age data.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus comprises an input device, a storage device, a measuring device, an arithmetic and control device, and a display device, in which:
said input device inputs a personal body data of a test subject including an age data;
said storage device stores said inputted personal body data;
said measuring device measures a physical characteristics of a living body;
said arithmetic and control device evaluates a condition of the living body of the test subject based on said physical characteristics and said inputted personal body data; and
said display device indicates the inputted personal body data and evaluated result and the likes;
wherein in said input device, upon setting the personal body data, a luminescent element corresponding to a section available for an entry operation is lighted up; and
said arithmetic and control device modifies a standby time until an automatic power-off based on the entered age data.
Yet further, in a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus according to the present invention, the data to be inputted first among the personal body data from said input device is a data concerning to the age.
Still further, a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus according to the present invention, said arithmetic and control device modifies the standby time until the automatic power-off to become longer as the entered age gets higher.
Still further, in a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus according to the present invention, said physical characteristics measured by said measuring device is a bioelectric impedance value, and said condition of the living body evaluated by said arithmetic and control device is of concerning to a body fat.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, a bio-characteristic value measuring apparatus comprises an input and display device, a storage device, a measuring device, and an arithmetic and control device, in which:
said input and display device inputs a personal body data of a test subject and indicates said inputted personal body data, evaluated result and the like;
said storage device stores said inputted personal body data of the test subject;
said measuring device measures a physical characteristics of a living body; and
said arithmetic and control device evaluates a condition of the living body of the test subject based on said physical characteristics and the inputted personal body data;
wherein said input and display device is a LCD of touch panel type which is designed such that, upon setting the personal body data, a display area available for input operation lights up or flashes.
There will now be described in detail preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference with the accompanying drawings.